It seems increasingly likely that we will see another round of nuclear diplomacy with Iran in September. This round will probably include discussions with the “Vienna Group” (the United States, Russia, and France) at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on refueling the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) in light of the Iran-Turkey-Brazil Joint Declaration announced […]
Geography Archives: Europe
Countries in the continent of Europe
Revealing Moments: Obama, WikiLeaks, the “Good War” Myth, and Silly Liberal Faith in the Emperor
War Crime Whistleblower in Obama’s Sights, War Criminals Not Private First Class Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old U.S. Army intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, is being prosecuted by the Obama administration for disclosing a classified video showing American troops murdering civilians in Baghdad from an Apache Attack Helicopter in 2007. Eleven adults were killed in the […]
Strand
Rouzbeh Rashidi, born in Tehran in 1980, is an independent Iranian filmmaker. He has been making films since 2000 when he founded the Experimental Film Society in Tehran, devoted to avant-garde, experimental, and low-budget filmmaking. He is currently based in Dublin. Strand (Iran-Ireland: Experimental Film Society, 2009) was shot in Iran in 2008. For […]
“Work”: In Search of a New Slogan
In 1972 Selma James, founder of the International Wages for Housework Campaign and, more recently, Global Women’s Strike, wrote the following: “We demand the right to work less.” Her reasoning was clear — when women work for a wage for 40 hours a week and still carry the weight of childcare and housework, what is […]
Afghanistan
Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 30 July 2010. | Print
Sanctions, the TRR, and the Future of Nuclear Diplomacy: An Iranian Perspective
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said earlier this week that the Islamic Republic is prepared to stop enriching uranium to the nearly-20 percent level required to fabricate fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR), if others agree to provide new, finished fuel for the TRR, in line with the Joint Declaration that Iran negotiated with […]
Economic Recovery for the Few
Where is this elusive recovery? The banks, some say, have “recovered.” Yet they remain dependent on Washington, they do not make the loans needed for a general recovery, and many medium and small banks keep collapsing. The stock market shows no recovery. The Dow index was 14,000 in late 2007 when capitalism hit the fan, […]
Obama: Setting Uribe in Motion
Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 27 July 2010. Cf. Hugh Bronstein, “Colombia Taking Venezuela Rebel Accusation to OAS” (Reuters, 17 July 2010); “Chávez advierte que EE.UU. está detrás de acusaciones […]
Iceland after the Fall
Financial crises and uncertainty go hand in hand; some make sacrifices and others plan on having to. But how many countries stricken by the global crisis actually feel existentially threatened? Iceland does. Since the start of the kreppa (“catastrophe” in Icelandic) in the fall of 2008, the small island nation of 320,000 has had […]
Our Century
Artavazd Peleshian, born in 1938, is an Armenian filmmaker. USSR: Yerevan Film Studio, 1982. Cf. “One of the central motifs is the rhythm of the 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 countdown that leads up to the launch of the rockets. Often, this rhythm dissolves into the sound of a heartbeat. […]
Greece and the IMF: Who Exactly Is Being Saved?
Excerpt: Importantly, the initial collapse and following standstill in economic activity and nominal levels of GDP is also extremely bad news for the strategy of fiscal consolidation itself. On the one hand, to keep on servicing interest payments (see above), nominal debt will continue to go up. On the other hand, nominal GDP goes […]
“Secularism . . . a Really Interesting Problematic”: A Conversation with Joan Wallach Scott
DKK: Joan, because people know you as many things — as a theorist of gender, as a cultural historian, as an inveterate advocate for academic freedom and defender of the rights of the professoriate — I’m curious how you would describe yourself to someone who had never met Joan Scott. JWS: That’s really hard . […]
Capitalism as a Cultural System?
Joyce Appleby. The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. $29.95. Pp. xii, 494. Joyce Appleby, who taught U.S. history for many years at UCLA, presided over both the Organization of American Historians and American Historical Association, and served her term as professor-in-exile among the Brits at Oxford, comes to the […]
The Seasons
Artavazd Peleshian, born in 1938, is an Armenian filmmaker. USSR: Yerevan Film Studio, 1975. | Print
Monopoly Capital Blocks Rational Policy of Wage-led Growth
Paul Jay: So we’ve been talking about macroeconomic policy, the G-20, austerity. And there was one little line in the G-20 document I thought was interesting, and it’s sort of buried in amongst everything. It said countries could facilitate wages going up proportional to productivity, which is rather interesting, ’cause it’s the only time […]
Alternatives to Fiscal Austerity in Spain
Executive Summary: This paper looks at the planned austerity measures in Spain, the rationale for the spending cuts and tax increases, likely outcomes for future debt-to-GDP ratios, and the probable results of alternative policies. It is widely believed that Spain got into trouble because of the over-expansion of government spending. However, during the economic expansion […]
Inhabitants
Artavazd Peleshian, born in 1938, is an Armenian filmmaker. USSR: Minsk Film Studio, 1970. About Inhabitants, Peleshian said: “Many people were offended or insulted by We. After that experience, I was mad at mankind and decided to make a film about animals. Animals don’t get upset, but at the same time, by focusing on them, […]
The Myth of Conflict-Free Diamonds
The issue of “blood diamonds” has once again made the news: Farai Maguwu, Director of Zimbabwe’s Mutare-based Centre for Research and Development (CRD), languishes under the long arm of Zimbabwe’s laws on alleged charges related to his research on Zimbabwe’s Marange mines. According to a confidential 44-page report produced by investigators mandated by the Kimberley […]
Co-opting the Anti-Nuclear Movement
No medium of propaganda is as powerful and effective as film. Think of the classics, the most notorious efforts to sway the public with the electrifying and collective passion of cinema: racial apartheid was justified in the US with Birth of a Nation. The Soviets glorified their revolution with The Battleship Potemkin. Then there was […]
We
Artavazd Peleshian, born in 1938, is an Armenian filmmaker. We was produced by the Yerevan Film Studio and released in 1969 in the USSR. About the film, Peleshian said: “If I had meant only the Armenian people, I would not have had the guts to call it We. The Armenian people are a ‘we’ that […]
